Pre-separator for inlets of cascade impactors

ABSTRACT

A pre-separator for separating out large particles from a fluid flow has a housing forming an interior chamber with an inlet and an outlet, and a separator plate in the chamber between the inlet and outlet. The separator plate has a surface facing the inlet that is provided with a liquid carrying tank into which the flow is directed when it enters the interior chamber through the inlet. The separator plate has a series of nozzle openings therethrough adjacent its periphery to the outside of the tank. The nozzle openings adjacent the periphery of the separator plate overlie a surface of the housing adjacent the outlet. The pre-separator thus has two impaction stages that permit use across a wide range of flows. The separator plate and the housing have surfaces which are tapered so that liquid in the housing can be drained out when the housing is inverted.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0001] Reference is made to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/679,936, filed Oct. 5, 2000, for METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CASCADE IMPACTOR TESTING OF INHALABLE DRUG THERAPIES RECOVERY FOR CHEMICAL ANALYSIS.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0002] In many instances, it is desired to have a pre-separator for aerosols that are being passed through a cascade impactor for classification, where the larger particles will be removed before entering the impactor.

[0003] A cascade impactor utilizing a pre-separator is shown in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/679,963, filed Oct. 5, 2000. The type of impactor that may utilize a pre-separator is one which has very low volume of active material that is to be analyzed, with the active material incorporated in a flow of fluid that includes inert particles that are relatively large. The larger inert particles do not enter into the analysis, but are needed for carrying the active materials in a dispersed fashion throughout the charge of gas.

[0004] A pre-separator is frequently required when measuring the aerodynamic size of particles discharged from dry powder inhalers because these formulations often contain a significant portion of diluent or carrier particles. The diluent, usually lactose, consists predominantly of particles larger than 20 micrometers, whereas the fine particles containing drug are substantially smaller than 10 micrometers. The large material causes problems for the characterization of aerodynamic size via cascade impaction because the amount is so large that it overloads the holding capacity of the first stage of the impactor. Consequently, large particles can bounce through to finer stages in the impactor, skewing the size distribution. Furthermore, when the diluent particles are very much larger than the cut point of the first stage, they may not be captured efficiently even at low loading levels.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0005] The present invention relates to a pre-separator for use with a cascade impactor that will separate large particles that are well outside of the range of interest in the impactor from the flow. The pre-separator utilizes a two stage separator arrangement, including one stage in which a low viscosity liquid is held in a cup, and against which the direct fluid input is impacted, and a second stage separator that provides for a flow through orifices or openings arranged annularly around the center cup. The two stage impaction in the pre-separator provides the ability to operate at a much wider flow rate range than with prior single stage pre-separators. A flow in the range of 30 to 100 liters per minute can be handled. This wide range of flows permits use of a single pre-separator for several impactor designs.

[0006] The inlet fitting to this pre-separator can be a standard USP inlet. The outlet of the pre-separator can slip into an inlet fitting for the impactor unit.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0007]FIG. 1 is a side elevational view of a pre-separator made according to the present invention;

[0008]FIG. 2 is a vertical sectional view of the pre-separator taken on line 2-2 in FIG. 1; and

[0009]FIG. 3 is a plan view of a separator plate used with the pre-separator of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0010] A pre-separator indicated generally at 10 is made to provide for a separation of large particles that are fed from a source of a gas carrying particles of interest, such as a dry powder inhaler, through a standard USP inlet indicated at 12. The pre-separator outlet comprising a fitting 14 is connected to a suitable cascade impactor 16 that is used for classifying particles carried through the inlet and the pre-separator into various size classifications.

[0011] In testing dry powder inhalers, very small amounts of active ingredients are carried in each dose, for example maybe 10's of milligrams of the active components. The total weight of particles that might be added, including the inert particles such as lactose, maybe 10's of micrograms so that only 0.1 percent of the particulate material is active material. The cascade impactor that is used is to accurately classify the small amount of active particles, the total weight which may be considered to be less than 1% of the total weight of all particles in the flow of fluid to the pre-separator, and if the larger particles are permitted to enter into the cascade impactor the results are not reliable because the large particles may cause flow problems, plugging or the like.

[0012] The input flow or aerosol, which is indicated in FIG. 2 by the arrow 20, is introduced into an interior chamber 22 of the pre-separator housing 24. The input connector 26 has an opening that is directly aligned with and above a separator plate assembly 28. The central portion of the separator plate assembly 28 is solid, and has a ring 30 of material forming a small tank 32 in which a selected level of liquid, such as water, is placed. The large particles carried in the air stream indicated by the arrow 20 will enter into this tank, and strike the liquid, and the largest particles will be separated out while the air stream and smaller particles will be directed to the outer periphery of the separator plate 28. The separator plate 28 has an annular area indicated at 32 around the tank wall 30 in which a plurality of nozzles or orifices 34 are provided. The flow of air carrying particles will go through these nozzles 34, and strike a collection surface 36 that is formed as part of the bottom wall of the housing 24. The surface 36 is preferably coated with a suitable adherent compound, as in conventional impactors. Particles of a second larger size impacted or separated on surface 36 will remain in place, and the rest of the flow in the smaller particles in or closer to the design range of impactor 16 will pass through a passageway 38 that is part of an output connector 40 of the pre-separator assembly. The flow through the passageway 38 will be carrying materials that have particles that are substantially reduced in size from that carried by the airflow 20, and this pre-separated flow will go into the impactor 16.

[0013] The internal surfaces of housing 24, and the separator plate 28 are designed so that they can be rinsed easily, and drained out. As can be seen, an undersurface 42 of the collection plate 28 is tapered from the central axis 44 out toward the nozzles 34. Additionally, the outer ring of the separator plate 28 has a lower surface 46 that also inclines inwardly toward the nozzles 34. That means that when the separator plate 28 is inverted, wash water and rinse water that is introduced will drain out through the openings 34 into the chamber 22. The wall 50 of chamber 22, that is opposite the surface 36, has an inner surface 52 that tapers toward the inlet connection 26 and all liquid will drain out through the inlet connection opening when the pre-separator is inverted.

[0014] The pre-separator is made in three sections that nest together. An upper section 60 that forms the chamber 22, the separator plate 28, that has an annular flange 29 that fits into a recess in section 60 and rests on a shoulder in the lower end of the upper section 60 and a lower section 62. The lower section 62 has a peripheral ring and a groove that innerfit with the lower edge of upper section 60. The upper and lower sections 60 and 62 can be welded together.

[0015] Thus, the pre-separator can be rinsed easily after use, to avoid cross contamination of particles from different dosages or tests.

[0016] The pre-separator provides for a separation, using impactor principles, of the larger particles at a wide flow range. The first or largest particles are separated by the first impaction on the separator plate, as shown, with the liquid in the tank 30, and the second size range particles are separated by impaction on surface 36. The second particles are smaller than the first particles, but larger than the designed particle range for the impactor 16. The surfaces of the pre-separator are formed to permit draining of material from the chamber so that the pre-separator can be adequately washed easily. Also, the two stage impactor in the pre-separator, which is positioned upstream from or prior to the inlet of an impactor, permits a wide useful flow range, as shown, between 30 and 100 liters per minute.

[0017] Further, the impactor 16 is designed to classify particles that are smaller than the particles classified or impacted in the pre-separator, so the two stage pre-separator provides an aerosol with larger particles removed before the aerosol is discharged into the impactor 16.

[0018] Although the present invention has been described with reference to preferred embodiments, workers skilled in the art will recognize that changes may be made in form and detail without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A pre-separator for separating large particles from a flow of fluid comprising a housing, said housing defining an interior chamber, an inlet directing the flow of fluid into the chamber having a central axis, a separator plate in the chamber having a surface generally perpendicular to the central axis, the housing having an outlet that is on an opposite side of the separator plate from the inlet, a series of openings adjacent the periphery of said separator plate, said openings overlying a portion of a bottom surface of the chamber, wherein fluid passing through the openings will strike the bottom surface and particles therein will be classified according to size thereby.
 2. The pre-separator assembly of claim 1 wherein said separator plate has a tank formed on a surface thereof facing toward the inlet, said tank receiving fluid entering the chamber from the inlet, the fluid subsequently passing through the openings at the periphery of the separator plate.
 3. The pre-separator of claim 1, wherein said separator plate has a surface facing opposite from the openings that is tapered toward the openings in the separator plate from a central area, and the separator plate has surfaces from a peripheral area sloping toward the openings in the separator plate.
 4. The pre-separator of claim 3, wherein said housing has a portion comprising a surface surrounding the inlet, said surface surrounding the inlet tapering such that when the inlet is placed in a downward position, the surface tapers toward the inlet and downwardly.
 5. The pre-separator of claim 1, wherein the housing is made in two sections that receive the separator plate between them, the section being secured together to make a three part assembly.
 6. The pre-separator of claim 1, wherein the fluid flow contains particles smaller than those classified in the pre-separator and wherein the outlet is fluidly coupled to an impactor, said impactor being designed for classifying particles smaller in size than the particles classified by size in the pre-separator.
 7. The pre-separator of claim 6, wherein the impactor is designed to classify active ingredients in the form of small particles that pass through the outlet, which active ingredients have total weight in a range of less than 1% of the total weight of all particles in the flow of fluid.
 8. A pre-separator for separating large particles from a flow of fluid carrying particles comprising a housing, said housing defining an interior chamber, an inlet into the chamber having a central axis and carrying the flow of fluid, a separator plate in the chamber having a surface generally perpendicular to the central axis receiving the flow of fluid and forming a first stage impactor for impacting first size large particles, the housing having an outlet that is on an opposite side of the separator plate from the inlet, a series of openings adjacent the periphery of said separator plate, said openings overlying a portion of a bottom surface of the chamber, wherein fluid passing through the openings will strike the bottom surface and forms a second stage impactor for classifying second size particles which are smaller than the first size.
 9. The pre-separator assembly of claim 8 wherein said separator plate has a tank formed on a surface thereof facing toward the inlet, said tank having a low viscosity liquid thereon for forming the first stage impactor.
 10. The pre-separator of claim 9, wherein said outlet is connected to an impactor for classifying particles smaller than the second size particles.
 11. The pre-separator of claim 10, wherein the flow of fluid contains large inert particles for the first and second sizes which have a total weight substantially greater than particles to be classified in the impactor. 